My 3 year old (guess I need to change my blog name) was a little sad that she didn't get to go to school. The 6 year old gave her a detailed explanation that her mommy would "home school" her. She talked about it everyday last week. Her aunt gave her a lunch box and she has a fuzzy, pink backpack. I gave her a notebook and she is ready. She's even dressing herself everyday and doesn't want help. One day last week she even played school and drew an A on the chalk board. Now both boys are in school and the 3 year old asks me every day when we are going to start homeschool.
We've started over with the letter A. She has two As in her name so the interest level is really high. We just use whatever we have and I go the direction she associates with. For instance, I made some really thick letters on the white board with bend-a-roos, wax coated strings. I wanted her to rub a crayon on paper over the letters. She couldn't quite get the hand of holding the crayon for a rubbing. I thought this would be a great exploration of the shape of the letter, but she didn't seek the missing pieces of the letter. So I rubbed the letters and with her amazing writing grip traced the letters with a different color crayon. Then I wrote words and pictures that both started with the letter A and had As in the words. Apple, Banana, Alligator, and Quack, Quack (that's what she calls her collection of duck toys.) We sang "Apples and Bananas", "Three little monkeys", and a Quack, Quack song to the tune of "I'm a little pile of tin"
I'm a little swimming duck,
I got 2 eyes and lots of luck,
2 webbed feet and feathers on my back,
I don't sing songs I just quack, quack.
Honk, honk, waddle, waddle, waddle, quack, quack, quack, (sing 4 times)
For some reason, 3yo thought of the rain and flood song when she was trying to do the crayon rubbing. So "rain" became another word to write and sing about. "The wiseman built his house upon the rock" She told me in her 3yo way that she didn't know the words at the end of the song. I hope to demonstrate the song with real sand and water some time. It involves a brick and some toy buildings from our wooden train set. It really works. A watering can or a garden hose with a sprayer provides the rain and the house on the sand falls every time.
The second day, we make new rubbings of the letter A and wrote the 3yo's name. I then wrote her name vertically and came up with an animal that starts with each letter. I drew the picture for each animal, but she just didn't get it. She just doesn't know the other letters and doesn't care that they can begin other words.
We read the Bearstein Bear's A book. And I could tell she didn't understand that those objects started with the same letter as her name.
We reviewed the previous days paper, which was made on a paper roll and she loves carrying it around and calls it a treasure map. We sang all the songs and looked for the A in the words.
At church, my daughter loves to play with the velco folder that my sister made with three letter words and pictures. She also loves the one I made with her and her brothers' names and faces. But she doesn't care for the other velcro folders a made, one for A, one for H, one for E. She doesn't care that all those pictures start with the same letter.
I think I'll make more three letter velcro folders. She enjoys matching the shapes and it might also help her brother learn to put words together.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Uu week
Monday- Pretty ok day until everyone walked away and I forced them back to the table. 5yo did trace a few Uu's on his unicorn page I got from first-school.ws. It was a bit difficult to find when I tried to go back to it. But just use the search option.
Then we sang some Jesus songs, and read and article in the friend. Amazingly, again, there was something that applied to kids' attitude. It was an article about a kid who was so excited to go to school and then found out that it isn't all learning about dinosaurs and trains and how bummed he was, but then his mom helped him research them on his own. My boys struggle with wanting to learn something other than what the teachers tell them to.
Watched sesamestreet.com because 5yo asked for it the day before and there were some pretty funny Uu videos. Next we went to the preschool table but the kids refused to color their Uu's from apples4theteacher.com. 2yo announced that she only wanted to cover hers in sand. Just like her Ss. I suppose that could be arranged. Preschool ended there. They didn't care about the state flag, or the number six page, or the fact that Utah's shape is like a big square with a little rectangle on it. Perhaps if I had made it with wood blocks. Hmm? Perhaps if I had had a Utah flag. That would have been really cool.
I've done a lot of rethinking about preschool this evening. I probably had plenty of coloring books with mazes and dot-to-dots and color by numbers but I bought some colorful ones from Crayola. I'm going to tone it down with the too advanced stuff and get back to daily coloring.
Then we sang some Jesus songs, and read and article in the friend. Amazingly, again, there was something that applied to kids' attitude. It was an article about a kid who was so excited to go to school and then found out that it isn't all learning about dinosaurs and trains and how bummed he was, but then his mom helped him research them on his own. My boys struggle with wanting to learn something other than what the teachers tell them to.
Watched sesamestreet.com because 5yo asked for it the day before and there were some pretty funny Uu videos. Next we went to the preschool table but the kids refused to color their Uu's from apples4theteacher.com. 2yo announced that she only wanted to cover hers in sand. Just like her Ss. I suppose that could be arranged. Preschool ended there. They didn't care about the state flag, or the number six page, or the fact that Utah's shape is like a big square with a little rectangle on it. Perhaps if I had made it with wood blocks. Hmm? Perhaps if I had had a Utah flag. That would have been really cool.
I've done a lot of rethinking about preschool this evening. I probably had plenty of coloring books with mazes and dot-to-dots and color by numbers but I bought some colorful ones from Crayola. I'm going to tone it down with the too advanced stuff and get back to daily coloring.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Jj week
Monday- The week started off great. Kid particiapation is always good. I made a quick jungle diarama before we started. It got their attention and they followed me to the preschool table. I let them color the letter Jj while we sang the ABC song. The we talked about some J words which we don't usually do at the beginning of the week. We talked about jungle, jam, jelly, peioples' names, and Jesus. I didn't plan it. It's Monday 'My God' Day and I plan to sing songs about Jesus every Monday starting today. Beautiful segue. I had laminated different pictures of Jesus last year to use in Nursery and a sacrament quiet book. I pulled out 4 of them that represented 4 song I wanted to sing. I started with the short ones and plan to teach the others one at a time. The kids didn't sing but they listened well.
Then I read an article from the Friend Magazine and it just happened to mention one of the songs we sang. Another beautiful, unplanned segue. We put our snakes we made last week in the jungle diarama. Accidentaly left it down and two of the snakes broke. Slipped right back together with some elmer's glue. Amazing. Way to go play dough.
Then I had this great idea to have all of this groups letters represented in out diarama. Spent all day looking for an animal that lived in the jungle that started with the letter U. Never found one so I settled for the upside down tree; Baobab. My husband came home and I told him what I did today and he went to the computer and found, oh, twenty five immediately. I guess I never typed in "animals that begin with U." Two thumbs up for the husband. Two thumbs up for first-school.ws/INDEX.HTM for having coloring pages for a few of them.
Tuesday- Made my star template with the right angle. Took quite a bit of calculating. Do you want to know? Divide 360 degrees by 5. This finds the inside angle if you divide a pentagon into triangles, which is 72 degrees. Which means the other two angles of that triangle are 54 degrees because they are equal and 180 minus 72 is 108 divided by 2 is 54. There's more. Now you draw straight lines off the pentagon to make the points of the star. You add up two of the outside angles of the pentagon triangles and subtract that from 180 degrees to find the angle in the star part. So 72 degrees is the angle for each side of the triangle in the star. Add those together and subtract that from 180 degrees. 180 minus 144(or 72+72) is 36. This is the angle you need to make a triangle shape for your star template. Wasn't that easy. Bwahahaha! In the end, I made the outside of the template a circle and it looks like Pacman. Later, I thought, I could have changed the circle in the first idea into a pentagon, follow the dot-to-dot and boom, a star. Could have displayed the Pentagon with the big flag they on it in 2001.
We made a practice flag. It was left over from last week's stars and stripes activity. The kids didn't use the star templates at all. Are you surprised? I tried all of my star templates that I made. The Pacman was the best but only because I never used a compass on the other templates. 5yo did help me draw stripes on our practice flag. The down side is that we used washable markers on fabric and our hands were covered with red and blue. When 8yo came home and played with it, he was covered with blue. But it was fun and the kids were very interested in how to fold a flag.
We also talked about Lady Justice and I tried to explain the scale and the blind fold and the sword. I'm sure they didn't get it. But the next time I have to be the judge in a sibling dispute, I'll try to explain it again. I found a Brite Music packet at the library. Janeen Brady has written a lot of music for difficult subjects to teach kids. This one is called Take your hat off when the Flag Goes By! A child's Musical Introduction to the Constitution. A cd goes with it and you hear a father and son at a parade talking and singing about all sorts of good stuff. The first song talks about taking your hat off for the flag which is all I wanted the preschool kids to learn. The other topics are a little too mature for preschool.
Then we read two books covering the Pledge of Allegiance. One describes each word of the pledge. I pledge allegiance by Bill Martin Jr and Michael Sampson. The other The Pledge of Allegiance by Norman Pearl talks about the birth of the pledge and why it was created.
Then I repeated "and justice for all" while I had my hand over my heart and tried to get the kids to do the same.
Wednesday- Today didn't work out. I planned to make really big letters on the floor with jump ropes. The jump ropes were to kincked to lay flat in the way that we wanted them to. They are now draped over the bookshelf, hopefully unkincking them selves for a later day. I showed the kids how to jump rope. They were very interested, but will need a lot more exposure.
Thursday- The kids didn't really care what letter their last name started and that the person who gave it to us was dead. 5yo did seem to make new connections of who everyone's mothers and fathers were on our family tree.
Friday- I had way too many things left over for this week. I ended up needing every single one of them. 5yo is really resistant to participating. I tried to teach him how to make triangles out of strips of paper. The first one didn't work out, more of a trapazoid, and he quit. He rarely tries again with me. I have to remember that he's a perfectionist and will hopefully just do it one day when he's figured it out in his head. But I do feel like he needs to practice, at least try. I had printed out a pumkin with the word 'jack-o-lantern' on the bottom and we were going to make the whole face using triangles. My creative son knew that he wanted a long straight strip for the mouth. Luckily he was able to explain that to me.
He didn't want to glue, didn't want to tape, didn't want to draw. He did want to cut out the orange pumpkin from construction paper. (I told you I printed some pumpkins, but we had so many triangles that I wanted to make more) He asked me how to do it and I told him to cut the corners off. It didn't go very well. "I hate preschool!" I turned on the computer and went to starfall.com. I clicked on the pumpkin and taught him how to make his own virtual jack-o-lantern while I cut stems for the pumkins. I pasted everything on to the pumpkins and was able to get him to at least pick which stem went on each pumpkin. Than we hung them on the door. Then he said he wanted skeletons with red eyes and red triangle teeth that 'were all scrunchy.' I cut everything out and he put the teeth on in a scrunchy manner because I didn't do it right. Awesome- some participation.
The boys have several jungle sets and we used one of the jaguars for our jungle diarama. I was starting to read about jaguars when somebody found the jingle bells. I couldn't compete with the noise and didn't want anyone to get in trouble so we sang 'Jingle Bells,' 'Santa Clause is coming to Town,' and Sleigh Bells.' Then I whipped out the Jj page and asked them to look for the jingle bells. We talked about the other things that started with J and when I noticed that they set down their jingle bells, I took them quietly.
We then read about jaguars and as I read that jaguar cubs were blind I thought that we should have done a blind activity this week because Lady Justice is blind as well. We could have done it with the jump-ropes. Two people hold each end while someone blind folded could find their way across the room holding on to the rope. Then they could not use the rope to see how much harder it is.
Then I read an article from the Friend Magazine and it just happened to mention one of the songs we sang. Another beautiful, unplanned segue. We put our snakes we made last week in the jungle diarama. Accidentaly left it down and two of the snakes broke. Slipped right back together with some elmer's glue. Amazing. Way to go play dough.
Then I had this great idea to have all of this groups letters represented in out diarama. Spent all day looking for an animal that lived in the jungle that started with the letter U. Never found one so I settled for the upside down tree; Baobab. My husband came home and I told him what I did today and he went to the computer and found, oh, twenty five immediately. I guess I never typed in "animals that begin with U." Two thumbs up for the husband. Two thumbs up for first-school.ws/INDEX.HTM for having coloring pages for a few of them.
Tuesday- Made my star template with the right angle. Took quite a bit of calculating. Do you want to know? Divide 360 degrees by 5. This finds the inside angle if you divide a pentagon into triangles, which is 72 degrees. Which means the other two angles of that triangle are 54 degrees because they are equal and 180 minus 72 is 108 divided by 2 is 54. There's more. Now you draw straight lines off the pentagon to make the points of the star. You add up two of the outside angles of the pentagon triangles and subtract that from 180 degrees to find the angle in the star part. So 72 degrees is the angle for each side of the triangle in the star. Add those together and subtract that from 180 degrees. 180 minus 144(or 72+72) is 36. This is the angle you need to make a triangle shape for your star template. Wasn't that easy. Bwahahaha! In the end, I made the outside of the template a circle and it looks like Pacman. Later, I thought, I could have changed the circle in the first idea into a pentagon, follow the dot-to-dot and boom, a star. Could have displayed the Pentagon with the big flag they on it in 2001.
We made a practice flag. It was left over from last week's stars and stripes activity. The kids didn't use the star templates at all. Are you surprised? I tried all of my star templates that I made. The Pacman was the best but only because I never used a compass on the other templates. 5yo did help me draw stripes on our practice flag. The down side is that we used washable markers on fabric and our hands were covered with red and blue. When 8yo came home and played with it, he was covered with blue. But it was fun and the kids were very interested in how to fold a flag.
We also talked about Lady Justice and I tried to explain the scale and the blind fold and the sword. I'm sure they didn't get it. But the next time I have to be the judge in a sibling dispute, I'll try to explain it again. I found a Brite Music packet at the library. Janeen Brady has written a lot of music for difficult subjects to teach kids. This one is called Take your hat off when the Flag Goes By! A child's Musical Introduction to the Constitution. A cd goes with it and you hear a father and son at a parade talking and singing about all sorts of good stuff. The first song talks about taking your hat off for the flag which is all I wanted the preschool kids to learn. The other topics are a little too mature for preschool.
Then we read two books covering the Pledge of Allegiance. One describes each word of the pledge. I pledge allegiance by Bill Martin Jr and Michael Sampson. The other The Pledge of Allegiance by Norman Pearl talks about the birth of the pledge and why it was created.
Then I repeated "and justice for all" while I had my hand over my heart and tried to get the kids to do the same.
Wednesday- Today didn't work out. I planned to make really big letters on the floor with jump ropes. The jump ropes were to kincked to lay flat in the way that we wanted them to. They are now draped over the bookshelf, hopefully unkincking them selves for a later day. I showed the kids how to jump rope. They were very interested, but will need a lot more exposure.
Thursday- The kids didn't really care what letter their last name started and that the person who gave it to us was dead. 5yo did seem to make new connections of who everyone's mothers and fathers were on our family tree.
Friday- I had way too many things left over for this week. I ended up needing every single one of them. 5yo is really resistant to participating. I tried to teach him how to make triangles out of strips of paper. The first one didn't work out, more of a trapazoid, and he quit. He rarely tries again with me. I have to remember that he's a perfectionist and will hopefully just do it one day when he's figured it out in his head. But I do feel like he needs to practice, at least try. I had printed out a pumkin with the word 'jack-o-lantern' on the bottom and we were going to make the whole face using triangles. My creative son knew that he wanted a long straight strip for the mouth. Luckily he was able to explain that to me.
He didn't want to glue, didn't want to tape, didn't want to draw. He did want to cut out the orange pumpkin from construction paper. (I told you I printed some pumpkins, but we had so many triangles that I wanted to make more) He asked me how to do it and I told him to cut the corners off. It didn't go very well. "I hate preschool!" I turned on the computer and went to starfall.com. I clicked on the pumpkin and taught him how to make his own virtual jack-o-lantern while I cut stems for the pumkins. I pasted everything on to the pumpkins and was able to get him to at least pick which stem went on each pumpkin. Than we hung them on the door. Then he said he wanted skeletons with red eyes and red triangle teeth that 'were all scrunchy.' I cut everything out and he put the teeth on in a scrunchy manner because I didn't do it right. Awesome- some participation.
The boys have several jungle sets and we used one of the jaguars for our jungle diarama. I was starting to read about jaguars when somebody found the jingle bells. I couldn't compete with the noise and didn't want anyone to get in trouble so we sang 'Jingle Bells,' 'Santa Clause is coming to Town,' and Sleigh Bells.' Then I whipped out the Jj page and asked them to look for the jingle bells. We talked about the other things that started with J and when I noticed that they set down their jingle bells, I took them quietly.
We then read about jaguars and as I read that jaguar cubs were blind I thought that we should have done a blind activity this week because Lady Justice is blind as well. We could have done it with the jump-ropes. Two people hold each end while someone blind folded could find their way across the room holding on to the rope. Then they could not use the rope to see how much harder it is.
Ss week
Monday- Ss week had some highs and lows. One of the highs was that I remembered in my oldest son's Montessori kindergarten, he had an activity that would help him practice control with his writing. They would draw a shape using an inset ( it's kind of opposite of a cookie cutter, but you could use a cookie cutter.) Then you try to draw straight lines as close together as possible to fill up the shape. Instead of using an inset or cookie cutter, I printed out the letter of the week from Apples4theteacher.com. The lower case s is a bit strange looking but I used it anyway. I asked the kids to make the capital S a snake and fill up the lower case s with stars and stripes. Snakes, stars and stripes all start with the letter S. Stars were too much to ask but the 2yo thought she was doing a great job. 5yo did a surprisingly great job with the stripes. I made my snake and when I drew on the scutes (the scales on the belly that help him slither) I realized those were stripes as well. The down side to this day was that the 5yo got very upset that my snake looked so much better than his. Apparently, he's a perfectionist like the rest of the family.
We read an article from the Friend Magazine and then the kids helped me make play dough. I found this recipe on the Internet about 6 years ago. I tried to look for it again to know who submitted the recipe but I could not find it. It's called:
Caesar's Gold Coins, creator- unknown
2 cups water
16 drops of food coloring
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1/2 c corn starch
2 TBSP oil
1 TBSP alum (found in the spice aisle)
Mix all the ingredients in a large sauce pan then cook over medium heat. (Don't start heating until you have all the ingredients mixed.) Cook and stir until thick and pulls away from sides of pan. Remove and knead until smooth. I usually wait until it's not so hot, but you need to knead it before it cools off completely. I always add flour to the counter and the top of the dough and knead it in. It always seems to need a bit of extra so that it's not so sticky. The original recipe said to 'roll into a thick snake and slice into coins and imprint a design. Place on cookie sheet or card board to dry. (Helps to turn them over the next day.) But we stopped at 'snake.'
I made about 6 snakes, some coiled up and some as S shapes, while the kids practiced making snakes with their dough. They usually destroy whatever they make, but they did a really good job going through the motions. It's not easy for little hands to get the dough long and skinny enough to roll on the table. But after weeks of preschool they're really starting to improve. I saved their dough for later by wrapping it in plastic wrap and sticking it into the fridge. You could leave it on the counter wrapped up, but I find the smell of old oil repulsive. It should last a little while in the fridge. And doesn't take very long for a grown up to knead it to be warm and soft for the kids to play with. I put my snakes in a shoe box and placed them up high, turning them a few times in the week.
Tuesday- Preschool didn't really happen today. I spent too much time looking up how to make a tricorn hat. My plan was to make a flag with markers and fabric and teach the kids to treat it and fold it properly. Well, the last time I tried to explain that the flag is folded to look like a tricorn hat the kids had no idea what I was talking about. The Internet hat some very professional methods, none were fast and preschool friendly. The newspaper triangle hat was going to be my last resort, but I had lost the kids' cooperation by then. I finally settled that if I every tried again, it would be to use a dollar store pirate hat (idea from a video on youtube) and staple (or sew) it in three places to make it look colonial. (I've learned that I just can't run to the store with the kids and then expect them to do preschool in the same day. Out of the question.) My next attempt later in the day was to teach them to make stars.
Several years ago I designed a star maker. But the preschoolers weren't able to do it. I cut out circle templates and wrote numbers around the edge like a dot-to-dot. Just connect the numbers with straight lines and return to 1 and you will have a star. I thought that perhaps with a ruler they would be able to make straight lines. But for my next idea, I cut out a star template and thought they could make straight lines with that but I couldn't even control my crayon and ended up tracing the outline of the star. Well in that case I could have just used a star cookie cutter. My third idea was to make a star maker using a circle with two strategically cut out lines. Well, you have to trace the circle first to keep the template in the right area and when I tried it I discovered my angles were wrong. By this time, the kids had been left alone too long without structured play and were getting in trouble with each other.
My next idea is to make another circle but cut out a triangle instead of two lines. We'll have to make the flag and tricorn hats another week when I can't think of anything else to do.
Wednesday- One missed day and the kids thought they never had to do preschool again. I waited until big brother came home and tried again. And to my delight, big brother convinced the little kids that it was fun. First we went to the sand box with more Ss print outs and glue. The printouts came from preschool express.com this time. I made their first initial on their page with glue and covered it with sand to show them how it was done. 5yo did a great job drawing the S with glue. 2yo wanted me to do her glue for her. I hope that by covering the S with sand, she will still learn the shape of the S. Shake off the excess sand and let it dry in a safe place and they make pretty cool letters.
Next we went into the family room and strung crepe paper around chair legs and pretended we were spies or secret agents. The crepe paper were security beams and the kids had to go over, under, and through to get to the other side of the room where a cd was playing salsa music. I really tried hard to look for spy music, but to no avail. Some movie clips I wanted to show were 'Wallace and Grommit, The Wrong Trousers', 'Get Smart' (but I couldn't get a hold of a copy and I wanted to preview that part for kid appropriateness), and a mystery clip that I couldn't remember the name of. Just no good. In the end I told the kids to dance to the music to get past the security beams and they caught on just fine with out the movie clips. I've got some great clips for myself now.
Unfortunately, 5yo got very annoyed with us making alarm sounds every time he touched a beam. I found this game in a game and activity book at the library last year.
Thursday- Children refused to play the 'sweep game.' I had done this for FHE about 3 years ago. I taped masking tape squares to the kitchen floor a couple of feet away from each other. Then I used a hole punch to make colorful dots. The goal is to sweep up the dots into the squares. But nobody wanted to play. They knew it was work training.
Next I tried to get them to sit still to make silhouettes of each other and me. No good until big brother got home. He's so great for thinking my ideas are fun and convincing the other kids. Of course, every one made funny faces and that's good enough. I did have trouble with the 2yo. Had to take a video of her silhouette. I used Windows Movie Maker to take a picture of a frame of the video. Now I just have to scale it to the size of the others for posterity.
Friday- Fun day! Painted our snakes. I printed out a page of different snakes, famous and in our area: the Diamond Back Rattler, the King Cobra, the Blow Snake that imitates the previous two, the Eastern Coral Snake and the Scarlet King Snake which look very similar. The kids did a great job. They're much more careful with paint than they were a year ago. The trick is to have everything ready and never leave their side. They wear over sized T-shirts, there's lots of paper towels and wet wipes handy. And I never paint when they do. I've learned to wait my turn. But luckily, they like to get cleaned up and go play, leaving me with the clean up and ample time to paint for my pleasure. It's usually hard not to paint over the kids work if I'm trying to make something for them to learn from. But this time I was able to stop myself. I wanted to paint these snakes to last a long time and be a reference for snakes they should be afraid of and snakes they can enjoy. Sometimes, preschool is all about me and what I want to learn.
We read an article from the Friend Magazine and then the kids helped me make play dough. I found this recipe on the Internet about 6 years ago. I tried to look for it again to know who submitted the recipe but I could not find it. It's called:
Caesar's Gold Coins, creator- unknown
2 cups water
16 drops of food coloring
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1/2 c corn starch
2 TBSP oil
1 TBSP alum (found in the spice aisle)
Mix all the ingredients in a large sauce pan then cook over medium heat. (Don't start heating until you have all the ingredients mixed.) Cook and stir until thick and pulls away from sides of pan. Remove and knead until smooth. I usually wait until it's not so hot, but you need to knead it before it cools off completely. I always add flour to the counter and the top of the dough and knead it in. It always seems to need a bit of extra so that it's not so sticky. The original recipe said to 'roll into a thick snake and slice into coins and imprint a design. Place on cookie sheet or card board to dry. (Helps to turn them over the next day.) But we stopped at 'snake.'
I made about 6 snakes, some coiled up and some as S shapes, while the kids practiced making snakes with their dough. They usually destroy whatever they make, but they did a really good job going through the motions. It's not easy for little hands to get the dough long and skinny enough to roll on the table. But after weeks of preschool they're really starting to improve. I saved their dough for later by wrapping it in plastic wrap and sticking it into the fridge. You could leave it on the counter wrapped up, but I find the smell of old oil repulsive. It should last a little while in the fridge. And doesn't take very long for a grown up to knead it to be warm and soft for the kids to play with. I put my snakes in a shoe box and placed them up high, turning them a few times in the week.
Tuesday- Preschool didn't really happen today. I spent too much time looking up how to make a tricorn hat. My plan was to make a flag with markers and fabric and teach the kids to treat it and fold it properly. Well, the last time I tried to explain that the flag is folded to look like a tricorn hat the kids had no idea what I was talking about. The Internet hat some very professional methods, none were fast and preschool friendly. The newspaper triangle hat was going to be my last resort, but I had lost the kids' cooperation by then. I finally settled that if I every tried again, it would be to use a dollar store pirate hat (idea from a video on youtube) and staple (or sew) it in three places to make it look colonial. (I've learned that I just can't run to the store with the kids and then expect them to do preschool in the same day. Out of the question.) My next attempt later in the day was to teach them to make stars.
Several years ago I designed a star maker. But the preschoolers weren't able to do it. I cut out circle templates and wrote numbers around the edge like a dot-to-dot. Just connect the numbers with straight lines and return to 1 and you will have a star. I thought that perhaps with a ruler they would be able to make straight lines. But for my next idea, I cut out a star template and thought they could make straight lines with that but I couldn't even control my crayon and ended up tracing the outline of the star. Well in that case I could have just used a star cookie cutter. My third idea was to make a star maker using a circle with two strategically cut out lines. Well, you have to trace the circle first to keep the template in the right area and when I tried it I discovered my angles were wrong. By this time, the kids had been left alone too long without structured play and were getting in trouble with each other.
My next idea is to make another circle but cut out a triangle instead of two lines. We'll have to make the flag and tricorn hats another week when I can't think of anything else to do.
Wednesday- One missed day and the kids thought they never had to do preschool again. I waited until big brother came home and tried again. And to my delight, big brother convinced the little kids that it was fun. First we went to the sand box with more Ss print outs and glue. The printouts came from preschool express.com this time. I made their first initial on their page with glue and covered it with sand to show them how it was done. 5yo did a great job drawing the S with glue. 2yo wanted me to do her glue for her. I hope that by covering the S with sand, she will still learn the shape of the S. Shake off the excess sand and let it dry in a safe place and they make pretty cool letters.
Next we went into the family room and strung crepe paper around chair legs and pretended we were spies or secret agents. The crepe paper were security beams and the kids had to go over, under, and through to get to the other side of the room where a cd was playing salsa music. I really tried hard to look for spy music, but to no avail. Some movie clips I wanted to show were 'Wallace and Grommit, The Wrong Trousers', 'Get Smart' (but I couldn't get a hold of a copy and I wanted to preview that part for kid appropriateness), and a mystery clip that I couldn't remember the name of. Just no good. In the end I told the kids to dance to the music to get past the security beams and they caught on just fine with out the movie clips. I've got some great clips for myself now.
Unfortunately, 5yo got very annoyed with us making alarm sounds every time he touched a beam. I found this game in a game and activity book at the library last year.
Thursday- Children refused to play the 'sweep game.' I had done this for FHE about 3 years ago. I taped masking tape squares to the kitchen floor a couple of feet away from each other. Then I used a hole punch to make colorful dots. The goal is to sweep up the dots into the squares. But nobody wanted to play. They knew it was work training.
Next I tried to get them to sit still to make silhouettes of each other and me. No good until big brother got home. He's so great for thinking my ideas are fun and convincing the other kids. Of course, every one made funny faces and that's good enough. I did have trouble with the 2yo. Had to take a video of her silhouette. I used Windows Movie Maker to take a picture of a frame of the video. Now I just have to scale it to the size of the others for posterity.
Friday- Fun day! Painted our snakes. I printed out a page of different snakes, famous and in our area: the Diamond Back Rattler, the King Cobra, the Blow Snake that imitates the previous two, the Eastern Coral Snake and the Scarlet King Snake which look very similar. The kids did a great job. They're much more careful with paint than they were a year ago. The trick is to have everything ready and never leave their side. They wear over sized T-shirts, there's lots of paper towels and wet wipes handy. And I never paint when they do. I've learned to wait my turn. But luckily, they like to get cleaned up and go play, leaving me with the clean up and ample time to paint for my pleasure. It's usually hard not to paint over the kids work if I'm trying to make something for them to learn from. But this time I was able to stop myself. I wanted to paint these snakes to last a long time and be a reference for snakes they should be afraid of and snakes they can enjoy. Sometimes, preschool is all about me and what I want to learn.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Ii Week
Monday- Went pretty well. Started with ABCs with the Leap Frog Discovery Ball and talked about the letters we've been learning about these last 4 weeks; A, E, F, and H, and that this weeks letter was Ii. Stayed up late making a bingo game for all 5 letters. Turned out pretty nice. I used the capital letters, lower case, and three pictures that started with each letter. They were unfamiliar with the Ii pictures but I didn't have much else planned today. I made one game and printed it up 3 times. Cut them all up and used one set to draw from and the other two for the kids to glue to a blank bingo card. It was a lot of little cards to glue for them, but with lots of encouragement and help they got through it. Then I drew from the pile and had them put a carob chip on the picture that matched. 2yo was eager to see how the 5yo did it and mimicked beautifully one time. Then she decided she couldn't do it and was hung up on not being able to eat some until the game was over. I had her draw the cards and tell me what they were while I played on her game board. That lasted about 5 turns. I ended up doing both. I really wanted them to finish and get the reward. 5yo got bingo and everyone got to eat their chips. We played again and 5yo wanted turns drawing from the pile. 2yo didn't last long, but with me helping her she won the next bingo.
Next we used the left over chips to cover an extra large, printed letter I. I found them on preschoolexpress.com. (I had spent a lot of time the night before trying to use the programs I had on my computer to make one myself, but to no avail.) I could stop blogging forever after I tell you that this is the most awesome preschool website ever. Don't read my blog any more. Just stop and go there right now.
I'm still going to blog... But you can bet I'm going to get a lot of ideas from there.
The idea I'm really excited to try is to tape the kids name (or letter of the day) to the sofa table. What I mean is to spell the kids' names with masking tape. Then you can do all sorts of things; trace the letters with your finger, cover it with paper and make a crayon rubbing, cover it with cheerios so the kids can visually and physically build the letter. I'm ecstatic. I've been struggling to get the kids to write the letters. I think this idea will get the kids to step up in the right direction. 2yo struggled with the instruction to place her carob chips on the paper, but she has seen it now and maybe tomorrow will be easier.
Next we glued craft stick together to make a capital I. Lastly, we read a short article from The Friend magazine. I was going to read another one, but 5yo asked, "Is it over now?"
Tuesday- Started with SesameStreet.org for the letter Ii videos. I'm noticing the kids are loosing interest in watching these clips. And that's ok.
Today I got a little carried away with flags. I stayed up late cutting out stripes and researching the history of the American Flag. I love how it's changed and all the stories that go with it. I didn't even hit on the letter I. I planned to. 'Indivisible' could have been worked in to the flag during the revolutionary war. Lincoln didn't want the union divided and if it had they would have had to take a few stars of the flag. And 'Indivisible is part of the Pledge of Allegiance, which is what I really wanted to discuss. There was another I word, but it escapes me.
I found a lot of flag coloring pages on the web. My favorite site it apples4theteacher.com. Consequently, I didn't find any patriotic or flag related videos on sesame street dot org. Hmmm? They cover the alphabet well at least.
5yo was very upset that he colored his white stripes red. I thought about using tape and paint to make a flag, but that won't teach him to stay in the lines. I guess we just need lots of practice and tolerance.
Wednesday- This was a fun day. Watched an old video I found at the thrift store long ago. It was made in the UK, distributed by Video Treasures, Inc, (which was sold to Anchor Bay.) My version was copyrighted 1990. I think I may have found a version copyrighted in 1994 from Anchor Bay on Amazon.com. Eight copies available. It's titled Pat-a-Cake Pat-a-Cake. It's got cute little songs that I didn't grow up with. I guess I'm a connoisseur of kid songs. My children are very familiar with the fishy song, the centipede song, and I wanted them to learn the inchworm song. Long story short, 2yo learned the inchworm song and you might be able to find a learning video on the web.
Then I found a cute clipart of an inchworm on a branch and cut it out so I could demonstrate the inchworm on the plant, under the plant, and in the plant. I also gave the kids some rulers and tried to explain inches. Note- thin plastic rulers can break and flip you in the eye with the jagged pieces. 5yo wasn't seriously hurt or cut, but it did surprise him in a bad way.
Then we played the 'In, On, and Under' game I made a few years ago. I constructed the 'In, On and Under' spinner (if it must have a name) from pieces of 1/2 inch pvc pipe, a dowel, and scrap wood.
Put it together with some glue and nails and made signs under each spinner. The pvc is divided into three sections; in, on, and under, of course. All you do is have the kids spin the pipes around real fast and see where they stop. Which ever word is more on top wins. Next, you have to put the kids in, on or under these things and they pretend they are a bug and maybe they'll learn a few sight words at the same time.
I used a brown blanket for the dirt. Wrap it around them if they're 'in' the dirt. I used a grey plastic tub for the rock. It's sturdy enough for the kids to sit on. And a green leaf made from poster board. Again, wrap it around them if they're supposed to be 'in.' The boys' favorite is to be under the rock. Just don't let things get out of hand. Establish rules like no rough housing and no sitting on the box while some body's 'under.' We'll play this again on Friday and for Bb Bug week.
Forgot to read Go, Dogs, Go by P.D. Eastman. It's got lots of 'in on and under's and lots of other things. I'll read it Friday and again on Oo week.
Thursday- All about being 'In' your neighborhood. Sang the ABCs and talked to them about some Ii words that I've been neglecting this week. Then I got out a flap book called.Arthur's Neighborhood by Marc Brown. Then we played with a felt picture collection my sister gave me. It's a picture of a street with buildings on it and the little felt pieces you can play with are people, kids on bikes, cars, an ice cream stand, bus, ups truck, postal truck, etc. Needs a garbage truck.
I lost the kids when I got out the maps. Should have had landmark pictures to place on the map. Should have gone on a walk and drawn out were we went. I want to make a box with pictures taken of all directions from our street corner with a map at the bottom of the box and window on all sides so that you can look at the map and then through the window to see what it would look like from that direction. I don't know if I could explain that one better.
Friday- ABCs and made a crayon rubbing with the letters Ii that have been on the sofa table all week. 5yo was disinterested at first, then excited, then angry. He's a perfectionist like the rest of the family and gives up after one failure. Neither kid wanted to play in, on and under. 8yo loved it. I don't understand what the problem is. This problem certainly has a pattern, though. Hmm?
Read Go, Dogs, Go by P. D. Eastman. Kids liked it. Read a book about iguanas and the kids weren't too interested until they learned that marine iguanas can go in the water.
We planned to pick up the older brother from school and head to the Dinosaur Park to see their 5 pet iguanas but 8yo refused to go. All summer long I had a terrible time going on outings because it took 2 1/2 hours to get people in the car or they flatly refused to go. But I learned that if they were already in the car, I could take them anywhere I wanted to go. Normally, we walk to and from school, but on Fridays I drive the car to pick up the oldest. Well, today I let the 5yo talk me into walking. Bad mistake. 8yo wanted me to take him to Grandma's while the little kids and I went to the Dinosaur Park. Well, you know everyone would want to stay at Grandma's, so I talked them into going to a playland at a fastfood place. I managed to take pictures of them 'in, on and under' things and I'll make a book out of it for them.
Next we used the left over chips to cover an extra large, printed letter I. I found them on preschoolexpress.com. (I had spent a lot of time the night before trying to use the programs I had on my computer to make one myself, but to no avail.) I could stop blogging forever after I tell you that this is the most awesome preschool website ever. Don't read my blog any more. Just stop and go there right now.
I'm still going to blog... But you can bet I'm going to get a lot of ideas from there.
The idea I'm really excited to try is to tape the kids name (or letter of the day) to the sofa table. What I mean is to spell the kids' names with masking tape. Then you can do all sorts of things; trace the letters with your finger, cover it with paper and make a crayon rubbing, cover it with cheerios so the kids can visually and physically build the letter. I'm ecstatic. I've been struggling to get the kids to write the letters. I think this idea will get the kids to step up in the right direction. 2yo struggled with the instruction to place her carob chips on the paper, but she has seen it now and maybe tomorrow will be easier.
Next we glued craft stick together to make a capital I. Lastly, we read a short article from The Friend magazine. I was going to read another one, but 5yo asked, "Is it over now?"
Tuesday- Started with SesameStreet.org for the letter Ii videos. I'm noticing the kids are loosing interest in watching these clips. And that's ok.
Today I got a little carried away with flags. I stayed up late cutting out stripes and researching the history of the American Flag. I love how it's changed and all the stories that go with it. I didn't even hit on the letter I. I planned to. 'Indivisible' could have been worked in to the flag during the revolutionary war. Lincoln didn't want the union divided and if it had they would have had to take a few stars of the flag. And 'Indivisible is part of the Pledge of Allegiance, which is what I really wanted to discuss. There was another I word, but it escapes me.
I found a lot of flag coloring pages on the web. My favorite site it apples4theteacher.com. Consequently, I didn't find any patriotic or flag related videos on sesame street dot org. Hmmm? They cover the alphabet well at least.
5yo was very upset that he colored his white stripes red. I thought about using tape and paint to make a flag, but that won't teach him to stay in the lines. I guess we just need lots of practice and tolerance.
Wednesday- This was a fun day. Watched an old video I found at the thrift store long ago. It was made in the UK, distributed by Video Treasures, Inc, (which was sold to Anchor Bay.) My version was copyrighted 1990. I think I may have found a version copyrighted in 1994 from Anchor Bay on Amazon.com. Eight copies available. It's titled Pat-a-Cake Pat-a-Cake. It's got cute little songs that I didn't grow up with. I guess I'm a connoisseur of kid songs. My children are very familiar with the fishy song, the centipede song, and I wanted them to learn the inchworm song. Long story short, 2yo learned the inchworm song and you might be able to find a learning video on the web.
Then I found a cute clipart of an inchworm on a branch and cut it out so I could demonstrate the inchworm on the plant, under the plant, and in the plant. I also gave the kids some rulers and tried to explain inches. Note- thin plastic rulers can break and flip you in the eye with the jagged pieces. 5yo wasn't seriously hurt or cut, but it did surprise him in a bad way.
Then we played the 'In, On, and Under' game I made a few years ago. I constructed the 'In, On and Under' spinner (if it must have a name) from pieces of 1/2 inch pvc pipe, a dowel, and scrap wood.
Forgot to read Go, Dogs, Go by P.D. Eastman. It's got lots of 'in on and under's and lots of other things. I'll read it Friday and again on Oo week.
Thursday- All about being 'In' your neighborhood. Sang the ABCs and talked to them about some Ii words that I've been neglecting this week. Then I got out a flap book called.Arthur's Neighborhood by Marc Brown. Then we played with a felt picture collection my sister gave me. It's a picture of a street with buildings on it and the little felt pieces you can play with are people, kids on bikes, cars, an ice cream stand, bus, ups truck, postal truck, etc. Needs a garbage truck.
I lost the kids when I got out the maps. Should have had landmark pictures to place on the map. Should have gone on a walk and drawn out were we went. I want to make a box with pictures taken of all directions from our street corner with a map at the bottom of the box and window on all sides so that you can look at the map and then through the window to see what it would look like from that direction. I don't know if I could explain that one better.
Friday- ABCs and made a crayon rubbing with the letters Ii that have been on the sofa table all week. 5yo was disinterested at first, then excited, then angry. He's a perfectionist like the rest of the family and gives up after one failure. Neither kid wanted to play in, on and under. 8yo loved it. I don't understand what the problem is. This problem certainly has a pattern, though. Hmm?
Read Go, Dogs, Go by P. D. Eastman. Kids liked it. Read a book about iguanas and the kids weren't too interested until they learned that marine iguanas can go in the water.
We planned to pick up the older brother from school and head to the Dinosaur Park to see their 5 pet iguanas but 8yo refused to go. All summer long I had a terrible time going on outings because it took 2 1/2 hours to get people in the car or they flatly refused to go. But I learned that if they were already in the car, I could take them anywhere I wanted to go. Normally, we walk to and from school, but on Fridays I drive the car to pick up the oldest. Well, today I let the 5yo talk me into walking. Bad mistake. 8yo wanted me to take him to Grandma's while the little kids and I went to the Dinosaur Park. Well, you know everyone would want to stay at Grandma's, so I talked them into going to a playland at a fastfood place. I managed to take pictures of them 'in, on and under' things and I'll make a book out of it for them.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Hh week (old news)
I know it's very confusing. To catch you up, I started with Aa week, then Hh, then Ee, then Ff. I didn't start blogging until Ee week and decided that I would have to catch up on Aa and Hh when I could. There you go.
Monday- Not a good preschool day. It was too long and boring and nothing tactile involved. It's one of those days that helped me realize that I needed drawing or cutting or playdough every day. And I didn't come to the conclusion that My God emphasis day should not be governed by the alphabet and that the format was all wrong until Ff week. Ok...
Tuesday- This day has a funny tale. 5yo is obsessed with bum-bums. It's Hero day and I get a book from the library with a bunch of heros. I already returned it. Can't tell you the title. One of those heros is Lady Godiva. The important parts are covered, but you see a leg and the hip (bum, if you will.) 5yo noticed it before I did. "Oh great!" So I scan and print all the pictures that I wanted to talk about in preschool and 5yo realizes that Godiva is not included. He refuses to cut out the pictures unless the bum-bum is one of them. It is a good story: She tells her husband that the towns people can't afford higher taxes and she dares her to ride naked through the town. If she does he promises not to raise the taxes. She rides naked through the town and gets herself on the hero list. So I give in and print up Lady Godiva and 5yo cuts out every hero picture beautifully. Completely dumb founded when I try to explain taxes to him, though.
I kept my composure while talking about all the heros. Thought I was going to loose it with the firefighters and the world trade center and the hero from Tianiman Square. (Already returned the book, sorry about the spelling.) There was an unknown young man who was the first to stand in front of the tank. Probably the first to die I imagine. The point about heros that I did eventually make was that these people were brave and they did the right thing. Some times being a hero means you might be in danger. Other times you're not in any danger. Then I reminded the 5yo that when he helped the dressing room clerk unlock one of the doors by climbing under the door and moving the latch was being a hero. He liked that.
Wednesday- Heart- This was a great day. I happened to find a stethoscope at the thrift store for $4. (I cleaned it up good.) But what a luck break. We found everyone's pulse and wrote them down. Then I didn't some exercise and took my pulse again. They actually didn't care. I was suprized. So I passed out the heart-shaped cookie cutters and I tried to teach them how to trace the outside. Scribbling on the inside was easier to do and 5yo did a great job. 2yo usually draws a lot of large round things and little tiny scribbles that mimic cursive. I think that's on the right track. I'll have to look that up. I made a heart to go on our poster board body. I tried to make it a cross between a real heart and the symmetrical heart shape so they could see how their related.
I believe we might have gotten out the playdough this day. It was lots of tactile stuff: drawing and squeezing and rolling and smashing.
Thursday- This was a great day, too. I tried to tell them about the difference between a house and a home. I don't think they got it. But they appreciated my house map. I drew red, dotted lines to show how to get out of each room. I believe each room is supposed to have two exits, but if my kids can't go up the stairs, they're out of luck. I don't think any of them can open a window and the basement windows are blocked. One by the bay window and the other by the deck. And there's no ladders to hang from the upstairs window. I think I can make a trap door for the deck, but ladders for the upstais? Probably fall to their deaths just trying to get over the side. (Sorry, one of those things that I ponder too much upon.) So I counselled the kids that if they can't get out the door, to close their bedroom window and yell for help until the firefighter comes to rescue them. Boy, how do you teach kids the facts of life without scaring the petudy out of them.
The fun part of the day was when I got out the square, triangle and diamond shaped blocks. They loved building houses with them. And they were so proud of me and the houses I built. You just never know what they're going to love.
Friday- We have sung the ABC song and used the white 'Hooked on Phonics' cards everyday this week. I just didn't write it every time. We talked about horses. Maybe this was the day that we glued craft stick together to make an H. And perhaps this was the day we shaped cookie dough into letters. The kids might be to young for this still, but I think after doing it every week they're going to catch on to making a snake and shaping it. 5yo loves to make an E by squishing pieces together, which is great, but he asks me to make all the other letters he wants. Tip- let the letter cookies cool about 8 minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet. Too soon and they crumble. Too late and they break.
Field Trip- The best! Went down to Thanksgiving Point to ride on their ponies. We also got to milk a cow and they loved the garden exibit. 8yo was all about the conveyer belt and made up a game for us all to play. Only $10 for me and my three kids. I think we'll go there more often.
Monday- Not a good preschool day. It was too long and boring and nothing tactile involved. It's one of those days that helped me realize that I needed drawing or cutting or playdough every day. And I didn't come to the conclusion that My God emphasis day should not be governed by the alphabet and that the format was all wrong until Ff week. Ok...
Tuesday- This day has a funny tale. 5yo is obsessed with bum-bums. It's Hero day and I get a book from the library with a bunch of heros. I already returned it. Can't tell you the title. One of those heros is Lady Godiva. The important parts are covered, but you see a leg and the hip (bum, if you will.) 5yo noticed it before I did. "Oh great!" So I scan and print all the pictures that I wanted to talk about in preschool and 5yo realizes that Godiva is not included. He refuses to cut out the pictures unless the bum-bum is one of them. It is a good story: She tells her husband that the towns people can't afford higher taxes and she dares her to ride naked through the town. If she does he promises not to raise the taxes. She rides naked through the town and gets herself on the hero list. So I give in and print up Lady Godiva and 5yo cuts out every hero picture beautifully. Completely dumb founded when I try to explain taxes to him, though.
Wednesday- Heart- This was a great day. I happened to find a stethoscope at the thrift store for $4. (I cleaned it up good.) But what a luck break. We found everyone's pulse and wrote them down. Then I didn't some exercise and took my pulse again. They actually didn't care. I was suprized. So I passed out the heart-shaped cookie cutters and I tried to teach them how to trace the outside. Scribbling on the inside was easier to do and 5yo did a great job. 2yo usually draws a lot of large round things and little tiny scribbles that mimic cursive. I think that's on the right track. I'll have to look that up. I made a heart to go on our poster board body. I tried to make it a cross between a real heart and the symmetrical heart shape so they could see how their related.
I believe we might have gotten out the playdough this day. It was lots of tactile stuff: drawing and squeezing and rolling and smashing.
Thursday- This was a great day, too. I tried to tell them about the difference between a house and a home. I don't think they got it. But they appreciated my house map. I drew red, dotted lines to show how to get out of each room. I believe each room is supposed to have two exits, but if my kids can't go up the stairs, they're out of luck. I don't think any of them can open a window and the basement windows are blocked. One by the bay window and the other by the deck. And there's no ladders to hang from the upstairs window. I think I can make a trap door for the deck, but ladders for the upstais? Probably fall to their deaths just trying to get over the side. (Sorry, one of those things that I ponder too much upon.) So I counselled the kids that if they can't get out the door, to close their bedroom window and yell for help until the firefighter comes to rescue them. Boy, how do you teach kids the facts of life without scaring the petudy out of them.
Friday- We have sung the ABC song and used the white 'Hooked on Phonics' cards everyday this week. I just didn't write it every time. We talked about horses. Maybe this was the day that we glued craft stick together to make an H. And perhaps this was the day we shaped cookie dough into letters. The kids might be to young for this still, but I think after doing it every week they're going to catch on to making a snake and shaping it. 5yo loves to make an E by squishing pieces together, which is great, but he asks me to make all the other letters he wants. Tip- let the letter cookies cool about 8 minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet. Too soon and they crumble. Too late and they break.
Field Trip- The best! Went down to Thanksgiving Point to ride on their ponies. We also got to milk a cow and they loved the garden exibit. 8yo was all about the conveyer belt and made up a game for us all to play. Only $10 for me and my three kids. I think we'll go there more often.
Ff and a new hope
Wednesday was awesome. It was all about fingers. ABCs. Sang a couple songs: 'The Fishy Song', '10 fingers on my hand' ('10 little indian boys' back in my day.) Then we traced our hands on to construction paper, numbered the fingers and cut them out.
I wanted to teach the kids about long, medium and short. I knew I could make an F with somethings long, med, and short, but was pleasantly suprized to find I could make all the capital letters in this first group with just our fingers. A little morbid to cut them up, but it is construction paper.
Next, we glued craft sticks together to make the letter F. 5yo through a fit that we weren't using the new package I just bought. I found some craft sticks from storage that had little grooves so as to bend and break them to the desired size. Why 5yo didn't think that was awesome is beyond me. 2yo and I used them to make long, med, and short and glued them together. I brought the 5yo back in with some froggy finger puppets I made when 8yo was in preschool. There are two holes at the bottom of the frogs for your fingers to be the frog's legs. I had a feeling to save this for the end. 5yo participated again and suggested we sing the 'Five green and freckle frogs' several times.
Thursday was fun for me. I made PVC pipe flutes for preschool. Another thing I had done with the 8yo. I made one long, one medium, and one short. I'll figure out how to post a how-to video tomorrow. For now I'll tell you that each had a cap at one end and an oval hole about and inch and a half from that same end. I made the hole with a drill bit and moved the drill from side to side to make the oval. You could glue the cap on, but when I put them on to see how they looked, I couldn't get them off again.
5yo had a rough time figuring out how to make the flute play. I just had to keep encouraging him to keep watching me and that there were more instructions. The instructions are: pucker and kiss the hole, then role it down your lip and blow like your spitting rice. If you achieve a flute sound you can talk about how blowing faster makes a higher note and blowing slower makes a lower note. If you don't achieve the flute sound, hold the flute for the child and move it around while the child is blowing. Have them experiment with different kinds of blowing. I knew this would be difficult so I bought recorders from the grociery store. Every child in my school learned to play them in the 5th grade. 5yo was despairing about the finger position with this one, but at least he could make a sound with it. Perhaps I'm asking too much of him, but I think exposure at a young age is so important. 5yo was very interested in the fact that the longer flute made a lower sound and the shorter flute made a higher sound and asked me to play them several times. whew!
Just a side note- don't let the kids play with the flutes unattended if they tend to make everything into swords. I learned that a few years ago as well.
I failed to mention that we started with the ABCs and talked about Fathers in our Family. We added root and grandma's and grandpa's to the family tree. I don't think they quite get it with all the death's, remarried's and divorces', but it's visually helpful for the 8yo who happened to work on the same thing at school; the third time that's happened. Cool!
We ended with laying the flutes on a large sheet of paper and tracing an F shape. Then we used the side of a broken crayon to color it in. Then I used a marker to draw numbers and arrows instructing how to draw and F.
Today the kids weren't quite willing to sing the ABCs at first so I started with the Founding Fathers. 5yo cut out the faces (2yo gave up and I let her for some reason) while I read We The Kids by David Catrow. Maybe that's why 2yo gave up; to listen to the book. It's a book with pictures set to the Preamble. Very silly pictures. I wanted to show 'America Rocks' again, but I think I'll wait until I get the DVD. I'd loose the kids trying to cue up the video.
Next, the kids were willing to sing the ABCs and I got out the Case Matching Game. It always suprizes me that the 5yo likes it. Then, I got out yesterdays giant F we traced with the flutes. then I used another paper and made a lower case f and included the numbers and arrows.
5yo thought the numbers and arrows were important but that didn't encourage him to practice on the page I printed from LearningPage.com. I've got to find a way to get him to write letters. I got out the markers, they're more tempting to use than pencil. But the 5yo has developed a guessing game in which he mixes up the lids and has me guess what the color of the marker really is. I think I should try sandbox letter writing.
Now we're on our way to a field trip to learn more about the Founding Fathers. I'm so excited.
Next, we glued craft sticks together to make the letter F. 5yo through a fit that we weren't using the new package I just bought. I found some craft sticks from storage that had little grooves so as to bend and break them to the desired size. Why 5yo didn't think that was awesome is beyond me. 2yo and I used them to make long, med, and short and glued them together. I brought the 5yo back in with some froggy finger puppets I made when 8yo was in preschool. There are two holes at the bottom of the frogs for your fingers to be the frog's legs. I had a feeling to save this for the end. 5yo participated again and suggested we sing the 'Five green and freckle frogs' several times.
Thursday was fun for me. I made PVC pipe flutes for preschool. Another thing I had done with the 8yo. I made one long, one medium, and one short. I'll figure out how to post a how-to video tomorrow. For now I'll tell you that each had a cap at one end and an oval hole about and inch and a half from that same end. I made the hole with a drill bit and moved the drill from side to side to make the oval. You could glue the cap on, but when I put them on to see how they looked, I couldn't get them off again.
5yo had a rough time figuring out how to make the flute play. I just had to keep encouraging him to keep watching me and that there were more instructions. The instructions are: pucker and kiss the hole, then role it down your lip and blow like your spitting rice. If you achieve a flute sound you can talk about how blowing faster makes a higher note and blowing slower makes a lower note. If you don't achieve the flute sound, hold the flute for the child and move it around while the child is blowing. Have them experiment with different kinds of blowing. I knew this would be difficult so I bought recorders from the grociery store. Every child in my school learned to play them in the 5th grade. 5yo was despairing about the finger position with this one, but at least he could make a sound with it. Perhaps I'm asking too much of him, but I think exposure at a young age is so important. 5yo was very interested in the fact that the longer flute made a lower sound and the shorter flute made a higher sound and asked me to play them several times. whew!
Just a side note- don't let the kids play with the flutes unattended if they tend to make everything into swords. I learned that a few years ago as well.
I failed to mention that we started with the ABCs and talked about Fathers in our Family. We added root and grandma's and grandpa's to the family tree. I don't think they quite get it with all the death's, remarried's and divorces', but it's visually helpful for the 8yo who happened to work on the same thing at school; the third time that's happened. Cool!
We ended with laying the flutes on a large sheet of paper and tracing an F shape. Then we used the side of a broken crayon to color it in. Then I used a marker to draw numbers and arrows instructing how to draw and F.
Today the kids weren't quite willing to sing the ABCs at first so I started with the Founding Fathers. 5yo cut out the faces (2yo gave up and I let her for some reason) while I read We The Kids by David Catrow. Maybe that's why 2yo gave up; to listen to the book. It's a book with pictures set to the Preamble. Very silly pictures. I wanted to show 'America Rocks' again, but I think I'll wait until I get the DVD. I'd loose the kids trying to cue up the video.
Next, the kids were willing to sing the ABCs and I got out the Case Matching Game. It always suprizes me that the 5yo likes it. Then, I got out yesterdays giant F we traced with the flutes. then I used another paper and made a lower case f and included the numbers and arrows.
Now we're on our way to a field trip to learn more about the Founding Fathers. I'm so excited.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)